The semi-random thoughts and musings of my daily life... written, literally, from the laptop on my kitchen table.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Bingham Canyon Mine

This wasn't on my bucket list, but I have to say it was pretty awesome! It might have made the list if I'd thought of it... Okay, it definitely would have made the list if I'd thought of it when I was making the list.

My friend Mary has kind of picked up on my local tourist quest to get out and explore and sort of rediscover the world around me. Yesterday afternoon she showed up at my door and said 'let's go!' Of course, I said 'OK!' We wound around much of Herriman looking for the UP house on the Parade of Homes and finally found it. So cute!! Unfortunately when I went to take a picture, I found my camera batteries were dead.

Leaving there we looked up and saw the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine not far away and, glancing at each other, said 'ooooo let's go there.' So we went. I got new batteries in the gift shop.

This is the marker explaining how the canyon got its name.

And a couple of views into the mine. At it's deepest it is 3/4 mile from surface to bottom and the known copper deposits extend to below sea level. Is it any wonder this huge mine is one of just two man-made things that can be seen from space? (The other is the Great Wall of China.)

In the next photo, notice the trucks hauling the ore and waste rock. They look tiny... like little toy Tonka trucks but in reality they are HUGE! I think the guide in the Visitor's Center said they each hold about 92 tons of material - 184,000 pounds - per load.

Here's a tire from one of these trucks. People look like dwarfs in comparison!

And the picture below shows what raw copper ore looks like.

Very informative, very interesting little tour. And another typical Utah tourist thing that I had long neglected doing. I am really glad that Mary picked me to go exploring with her!